Rotation 2 | How can artists act as agents of change? & Zine making

This was the first week of Rotation 2, where two new grad student teaching artists came in for both groups and started a new unit with the teens.

In the Next Group, teaching artist Max, introduced students to the artist, Swoon, and how her artwork is used as form of social and political action. Students discussed recent events that students found important to react to. Inspired by Swoon’s wheatpaste artwork, students created drawings and stencil cut-outs responding to a prompt in their artwork that might identify a problem or solution to our social and political climate. The stencil cut-outs from paper had students explore negative and positive space, work with detailed paper cutting, and expressing ideas in a new medium.

In the Race Group, students shared and discussed their reactions and thoughts on given assumptions about others and personal experiences. Teaching artists, Bonnie and Angela, led students through a zine workshop where students began to create their own Zines that incorporate collage, drawing, poetry, and free expression to explore words. Students will continue to expand and build on their zine-making over the course of the next couple of weeks. Excited to see the progress!